Actress Piper Perabo Likes Salmon in Her Tiffin and Organic Waste in Her Freezer

Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people kick-start the day. And by people we mean celebrities.

Photograph by Matt Duckor

Covert Affairs, the USA Network show in which actress Piper Perabo plays a CIA operative and kicks much a#$, premieres its third season tonight. All that action requires a lot of training–and a high-protein diet. Below, Perabo tells us about how she preps for a day full of heart-pumping scenes each morning. –Julia Bainbridge

I am morning person–I love that morning air. So I love to go for a walk to get my coffee. There’s a coffee shop in my neighborhood called Everyman Espresso and it really might be best coffee in the world. I travel a lot, and I still think this is the best.

When I’m filming Covert Affairs, which is an action show, I need a lot of energy. So I did a lot of research–consulting Andrew Weil, the nutritionist–and now my real breakfast of choice is broiled salmon with different pickled vegetables on the side. Growing up, I would have cereal, milk, fruit–a lot of those have too much sugar. If you’re not going to eat for a while and you’re going to be jumping off buildings, it’s good to go with this kind of long burning lean protein. I also have a green juice: cucumber, parsley, kale, maybe half a lemon in there, watercress, spinach. Making the breakfast is one of the most time consuming things I do in the morning, so I eat it on the go. I have stainless steel containers from Chinatown that lock closed and a steel thermos that I put my juice in.

And then I put vitamins in my pocket. I take a Dr. Weil multi-vitamin (it sounds like I’m promoting him, but I’m not…I mean other than the fact that he’s very smart), Wellness Formula (Whole Foods)–all the stuff that prevents you from getting a cold. I also use a Neti Pot routinely in the shower. It’s so good to open up the sinus cavity–you want the whole mask of your face bones to resonate. You shouldn’t do it every day–it’s a little too strong–but when I was on Broadway, I’d do it about four times a week. I know Broadway girls who sing who do it every day, though. Then I look at the New York Times, the best newspaper in the world. And I look over my lines in the morning.

I’m driven to work. I’d love to be one of those chic girls on a bike with her skirt blowing in the wind, but no. I’m too scared of a massive head injury to bike.

An extra note on the juice: When you make juice in the morning, there’s a whole lot of pulp left. In NYC, I always wished I could compost that, but I don’t have a way to compost in my apartment. If you walk as far as the farmers’ market, though, you can dump your compost there. But where to put it in the meantime? Then, at the market, I saw this guy get off his bicycle and take his compost to the bin, so I asked him, “How do you do that?” He said he keeps it in a bag in freezer–that way your banana peels and whatever else don’t smell. So now I always put my compost in a in freezer bag. If you open up my freezer, you’ll find vodka for my martinis and organic waste!